. Our aim here is to set up a combination of effects and then have their most important parameters controlled by a Macro Control. First let’s look at how to set up an audio effects rack:
We now have a giant effects unit that has WAY too many possible options for one person to deal with. So make some Macro Controls.
What the hell is a Macro Control?It is a group of 8 knobs at the beginning of a Rack that allows you to control the most important parameters directly from your MIDI controller, or using a mouse if you’re old school like that.
As soon as you’ve created the Audio Effects rack by Grouping, you will see that a box has been put around all your audio effects, and a device title bar has been created. The button immediately under that device’s on/off button is Show/Hide Macro Controls. Click this button and your Macros Controls will appear.
Let’s use an example of setting up a hi pass filter for Macro Control. Select the Auto-Filter effect, and right click on the filter frequency. From the menu that pops up, select Map to Macro 1.
The Filter frequency is now assigned to Macro 1, meaning that you control it from the Macro Control tab and not on the effect itself. The beauty of this is that you no longer need to go digging for the parameter you want inside an audio effect, it is clearly laid out for you. Right click on Macro Control 1 to rename it and colour it to your taste.
As many effects parameters as you like can be assigned to one Macro. A trick I commonly use is to assign the filter on/off button and the filter frequency to the same Macro. By clicking the green Map Mode button, I can set from which minimum value to which maximum value a parameter will be active. For example this setting below means the effect is off in the 0 position and turns on as soon as I move it the tiniest amount to 1.
This is all the info you need to build your own Macros, allowing you to control a whole range of crazy effects from 8 knobs!
Written By : Fletcher Beadon
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